The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 8

Breathing loudly and gasping for air as I woke up, I felt my forehead sweating and my body temperature high. Looking around at my surroundings, I noted that I was in a small room, tied to a chair. One thing I knew for certain was that this assassin was definitely consistent.

Looking at the ropes that held me down, I noticed they were much tighter and neater than my previous experience. Perhaps he wasn't as amateur at rope tying as I first thought. Trying to break free, I realised my hands were also securely tied to the back of the chair, digging into my palms each time I tried to fight my way out.

The assassin strolled in, still hiding in the shadows and covered in his hood. Right now, I wanted him to release me. That was all I wanted. My curiosity about who he was had disappeared as I tried to break free. I just wanted to go back to the university.

'I see you've woken up,' the assassin commented, his robotic, intimidating voice echoing through the room. Strange. The space must have been bigger than I first thought. And emptier. Maybe the only piece of furniture was the chair I was held hostage on.

'What do you want,' I said with a struggle, my speech slurred as if I was drunk.

'Funny,' he said. 'The sedative I injected you with didn't agree with your body at all.' So that's why I blacked out.

'Listen,' I stated, starting to control my speech better. 'I don't want to join whatever you've planned. I'm not an assassin.'

'Wow, you are cleverer than I thought, like your previous assignment,' he commented. What was that supposed to mean? Oh, he must be the one who took my assignment.

'You took my assignment?' I shouted angrily. I was done. with all this. I just needed to escape.

No answer.

'For years I have been searching for someone like you,' he carried on, ignoring my retaliation. Now it really sounded like he wanted to recruit me. 'And now, I can finally rest. You will help me.'

'I am not a killer!' I shouted again.

'I didn't say in wanted you to be an assassin,' he said. Then what did he want? 'Do you remember at the start of the year, I said you could be a detective?'

'Yes,' I muttered, annoyed.

'Then I want you to be one. But not a detective, as such. A forensic scientist.'

What type of assassin was this guy? I was confused. He wasn't here to kill me or to recruit me. But turn me into a scientist. It didn't make sense at all.

'So if you need me so much, why don't you show me your face?' I asked, plucking up courage. 'I'm not going to answer to you until you do.'

Miraculously obeying my command, the assassin pulled back his hood and face-mask to reveal an ordinary man, much to my surprise. But as I looked closer he was far from ordinary. His eyes were blue and I felt as if they could see into my soul, making my hairs stand in end. His mouth was curved up to one side of his face in a natural smirk, almost like a bad attempt at a smoulder, and the lines on his face represented all his anger, fear and loss had had been through. His hair was the deepest, darkest brown, like the darkness that had clearly consumed his soul, and his dark eyebrows framed the top of his eyes, as if all his thoughts were surrounded in darkness. But I knew this assassin wouldn't have abducted me just to turn me into a scientist. He had a motive.

'I need you,' he said, this time in a much softer voice, his robotic voice gone and a natural, American accent present. Manipulation techniques. 'My wife, Rebecca, she was murdered. I couldn't stop what happened. And I intend to stop anything like that happening again in The Glades. In Starling.' Everything seemed to revolve around Starling. Especially murder. 'I need someone to watch over my son, too. He and his friend always gets into troubl, and I need someone to stop him doing that. I can't lose another person special to me.'

So I was going to be this man's helper, like a puppy at his heels who would obey him with the click of his fingers. And it seemed that I didn't have any choice.

'What if I say no?' I asked impertinently.

'Then,' he said. 'I will have to kill your friend.' Out of nowhere, he dragged Harper from the shadows, clearly sobbing away. I wanted to run up to her and end all this, but I couldn't. I knew too much information for him to let me go.

'No!' I shouted, starting to feel warm tears start to trickle down my cheeks. 'She has nothing to do with it!' I really sounded like Harper now.

'Choose!' he shouted.

'Shoot me instead!' I retaliated.

'No, you're not answering my question!' he shouted again in frustration, making me jump in fright.

'Okay, okay, I'll work for you!' I shouted and heard Harper scream as he shot her in the heart with a black arrow. I screamed back through tears, their hot, wet texture against my burning, angry cheeks. Of course, he was going to kill her anyway.

'She couldn't know about this... agreement,' he said quietly, slightly psychotic.

He untied me from the chair and shook my hand. 'Merlyn. Malcolm Meryln.'

I didn't retaliate or run away. I didn't even care what happened.
I was broken.